Fans of Stranger Things still have a while to go before we can see Season 5 — the Duffer Brothers’ conclusion to our Hawkins, Indiana, heroes’ battles with the creatures of the Upside Down. However, if you happen to be around London’s West End, you might have the opportunity to catch the theatrical production, Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Previews were held in November for the prequel, before it officially opened on December 14, and critics are weighing in on how the record-breaking Netflix series transitions to the stage.
The play is set in 1959 — the year Henry Creel (aka Number One, aka Vecna) and his family move to Hawkins — and it includes a number of characters we’re already familiar with, including Joyce (Isabella Pappas), Hopper (Oscar Lloyd) and Bob (Chris Buckley), in addition to, of course, Henry (Louis McCartney) and Dr. Brenner (Patrick Vaill). Shannon Connellan of Mashable praises the acting and compares the production to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as the productions share multiple crew members. Connellan writes:
Like its Harry Potter predecessor, The First Shadow's stagecraft is nothing short of magic, a flawless technical array of projection mapping and pyrotechnics, and Tony/Olivier-winning lighting designer Jon Clark does wonders with the space. The play's stunning opening sequence envelops the audience with enough effects to make William Castle squeal, and the impact is full immersion in the world of Hawkins and the looming Upside Down. Hardcore theatre lovers may take issue with the amount of screens involved with the production, enabling backdrops and even establishing shots before the stage action begins, but this is a Netflix production after all.
Arifa Akbar of The Guardian rates it a perfect 5 out of 5 stars, writing that the production delivers one coup de theatre after another. It’s not necessarily just for fans, either, Akbar says. Stranger Things viewers will be able to trace storylines back, but The First Shadow is still “irresistible” for newcomers. The critic continues:
It is truly dark too, with horror film jumps and menacing gurgles (great sound design by Paul Arditti), contrasted with a bright-eyed, retro Americana laid on thick and smatterings of song. Even if you can’t keep up with the plot, it is underpinned by serious inquiries into the psychopathy of war, toxic inheritance, and the search for good parents and release from bad ones. It also touches on othering and adolescent anxieties about being ‘normal’.
Alex Wood of What’s On Stage also gives it 5 stars out of 5 for how it “dials the visual spectacle up to 11.” Audiences are battered by wind, coated in haze, subjected to bloody scenes of gory panic and transported into mysterious realms just in the first 4 minutes, the critic writes, noting:
One of the production’s greatest strengths is [director Stephen Daldry’s] ability to know what gels with a live audience, rather than binge-watching sofa-dwellers. Thrills that work in your living room might not do so in a 1000-seat auditorium. The director stages the show in same way he would do a musical – with mammoth, tech-laden sequences instead of numbers. A lot of scenes take a similar shape – set pieces slowly come together, tensions ratchet up, before a visually spectacular climax.
Neil Armstrong of BBC gives it 4 out of 5 stars, saying the visual effects are laudable, but it’s the characters and the actors’ portrayal of them that make Stranger Things: The First Shadow work. Armstrong continues:
The First Shadow manages to capture the hectic, adolescent energy of the TV show at its best but does balance that with more reflective moments. There's also a surprising amount of great comedy and a song-and-dance number that I didn’t see coming. A wide variety of locations – a school locker room, the police station, a sinister laboratory, the woods, a creepy attic – are skilfully evoked and excellent use is made of a revolving stage. The immersive sound design weaves in musical themes and motifs from the series.
The stage adaptation doesn’t work for everyone though. Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post calls The First Shadow “a total disaster.” While the critic admits that Louis McCartney is “fantastic” in his professional stage debut as Henry Creel, he deserves better than this production. Oleksinski rates the play 1 star out of 4, writing:
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the streamer’s freshman attempt at a stage play is a huge, insufferable embarrassment. Mega-fans of the TV series, like me, will be extremely disappointed by how the live show, which opened Thursday night at the Phoenix Theatre in London, epically fails to conjure the magic and small-town charm of the Duffer brothers’ popular creation. This bloated behemoth bears zero resemblance to your favorite binge-watch. What’s strange is that all this money and talent amounts to such a shambles.
It sounds like most critics find Stranger Things: The First Shadow to be a satisfying addition to the sci-fi franchise’s canon. Now if only we could get some information in regards to it making its way to the United States! While we wait for that and Stranger Things Season 5, however, fans can always relive the adventures of the first four seasons with a Netflix subscription, and check out what else is new and coming soon to Netflix.
